The Royal Tour of Chitral and the Shandur Polo Festival is turning out to be quite an amazing tour. Not only is it an experience of a lifetime, seeing polo played in its primordial form, in one of the most stunning venues on this planet, but the friends that are coming together for this tour are making it the tour of a lifetime.
Twelve places are taken, by some of my dearest friends. I have team-mates from past SEA Games of 1983 and 1995. My Canadian university house-mate has decided to join us, as he says he has “unfinished business” with touring Pakistan. Cassidy & Co team-mates will also be there. In fact, we have friends from all over the world coming together for this Shandor Festival tour – friends from Australia, Canada, UK, Ecuador and Singapore.
When I was studied at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, my house was known as the United Nations. We had friends from all over the world staying there or dropping by. It is no coincidence that this tour is as diverse as the friendships made then, nor is it strange that a friend who has no horsey background would come on this tour with us.
It’s quite the tour: eight days in Pakistan, high in the mountains, described as one of the most beautiful places on earth. There, we will be watching or playing Buzkashi, mountain-style polo, and watching the two teams of Chitral and Gilgit battle it our in a no-holds barred polo match.
As Qubilai Alam, our partner in organising this tour puts it:
Free-style mountain polo is arguably polo in its purest form. This version of the game played at Shandur-Top has attained legendary status and is of great interest to international and domestic adventure tourists alike. There are no umpires and everything goes. The rules are: There are no rules!
Chitral and Gilgit have always played the game of polo closest to its original form. Each team has six players. The match is divided into two halves of 25 minutes, with a 10 minute interval. Only 1 polo pony is permitted per player, and if a player or pony leaves the field injured, the opposing team also reduces its strength by 1 player. A fresh polo pony may not be introduced into the game, as that will prove to be a distinct advantage.
The field measures about 200 meters by 56 meters (a normal polo field is about 270m by 150m), with 60 cm high stone walls running the length of the field on both sides instead of boards. Players rarely wear helmets, the horses’ legs often have no bandages, and very few mallets have grips or straps.
All this is played in the rare air 12,500 ft up at the world’s highest polo field.
We will visit the camp of the champions and legend Sikander Ullmulk the night before the big game. We will take in the atmosphere of the supporters, their cheering, their music, and dance.
It is surely a tour like no other.
As a tour, I’ve organised a few exceptional ones, going back to the 1995 Chiang Mai SEA Games. But Shandor is special. It has taken us 5 years to put it all together.
The hotels are booked, the 4WD cars are standing by. The horses are ready.
There are just seven places left in this tour of a life-time.
For those who would like to view this tour in full, please use this link to the KL Academy of Polo’s webpage: https://klacademyofpolo.com/royal-tour-of-chitral-and-the-shandur-polo-festival-2019/
